MBS API Documentation

Did you know that with API access you can download Empirasign Market Data right into Excel for easier manipulation? If you currently don't have an API license, please contact us and we can set you up with a demo ID and a few hundred free queries to kick the tires: info@empirasign.com

API Docs

BEFORE PROCEEDING, MAKE SURE MACROS ARE ENABLED FOR THIS SPREADSHEET UNDER SECURITY SETTINGS.

Entering your credentials:
In the credentials tab, found below, enter your API ID into cell B4 and your API Password into cell B5. If your machine sits behind a proxy server, this must be entered into cell B8. More on proxy servers below.

To Retrieve Market Data for a Single CUSIP/TICKER:

Just enter the cusip or ticker for the security you want to query into Cell B8 on the main tab, and then click the "Get Bond Data" button. Searches can also be constrained by trade date by entering a date range in cells B9 and B10.

For bulk cusip/ticker Market Data queries:
Just enter all the cusips/tickers you want to query into the marked area under column A on the bulk tab and click the "Retrieve Data" button. All our market data will be populated in the bulk_results tab. You can still use the main tab to do single cusip or ticker requests.

Results of Bulk Search:

To Retrieve BWICs for a Specific Date:

Go to the bwics tab. Enter the market sector you want to query (see complete list below) into cell B8. Enter the date range you want to see the BWICs for into cells B9 and B10. If the Date cells are left empty, the search will default to the current date. Click on the "Get BWIC Data" button to run the query.

To Retrieve Offers for Dealer/Sector/Date Combo:

This is a two step process: First see what dealer/sector combos are available for a given date, then download the offerings for a dealer/sector/date combo.

To see what dealer/sector combos are available for a given date, go to the offers tab and enter the date you want to query into cell B8. Then click the Get Available Offers button to view what dealer/sector/num_bonds combos are available for that date. This information will be displayed below the range A12:C12 which is labeled sector/dealer/num_bonds. Once you have decided what combo you are interested in, enter the sector into cell B9 and dealer name into cell B10. Make sure to use the same names as displayed. Now, click the Get Dealer Offers button to retrieve the actual offering data. Once the query has run, this data will be displayed under the range E7:Y7.

BWIC Sectors You Can Query:

Do I need to enter a Proxy Server?

For those of you sitting behind a proxy server, our API now plays nicely with them. Just enter the proxy server address in the appropriate cell on the new credentials tab. See below:

The best way to determine this is to see if your copy of Internet Explorer uses one. This can be found by clicking the "LAN Settings" button on the Connections tab under the menu Tools -> Internet Options. Example Proxy Server: bankproxy:80 If you do not need or use a proxy server, simply leave this cell blank. If your browser uses an automatic configuration script, you'll need to use a parser to extract the Proxy Server address. To do so, either consult us directly or feel free use our web based parser.

The above examples are all illustrated via our demo Excel spreadsheet. The spreadsheet code that interacts with the API is written in VBA. We also have demonstration scripts written in Python. We can provide these and further documentation upon request. Any language that can form a valid HTTP request should have no issues interacting with our API.

To download the spreadsheet used in the above examples, please follow this link:

Query Counts:

/api/cusip/

1 query per call.

/api/bonds/

n number of queries per call where n is the number of bonds in a query (max 200).
Ex: if you request data on 300 bonds, only the first 200 results will be returned and your quota will increase by 200 queries.

/api/bwic/

0 queries. Call does not increase your query count.

/api/offers/

0 queries, if request what offers are available to query (i.e. 'Get Available Offers' button on spreadsheet). This will return dealer inventory counts for a given sector on a particular date.

n queries, ifn number of bonds are returned for a dealer/sector/date offer sheet request.